In sociology a norm is a shared expectation of behaviour that connotes what is considered culturally desirable and appropriate. Norms are similar to rules or regulations in being prescriptive, although they lack the formal status of rules. Actual behaviour may differ from what is considered normative and, if judged by existing norms, may be deemed deviant. Consequently the concept is intimately linked to issues of social regulation and
social control
and to the dominant sociological problem of
social order
. In this sense the idea of what is normative is crucial to lay and sociological understandings of social interaction. The terms norms and normative ...
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